Good. It’s best she goes into this with confidence.
“You two go in whichever way you’d like. Protect our girl,” Wylan commands, his eyes tracing up the building. “I’m going to find another way in.” He grabs Ava and kisses her roughly. “I’m going to be cross with you if you get hurt, crumpet,” he tells her. “So don’t.”
Then he disappears around the side of the building. I know he’ll probably scale up it and find an entrance from the windows above. The three of us are incapable of that, so we’ll enter through the office doors like I’d told Dagen. Part of me thinks we should split up, but I’m not a fighter, not like Wylan. While I work out, I hardly know enough self-defense to be anything but a liability without a gun. Ava isn’t a fighter either, not physically. Mentally, she’s the strongest woman I know. Dagen seems like he might be able to handle himself, but I have no way of knowing what his capabilities are in this moment. His records only show like three weeks of karate class as a kid before his mother pulled him out of it. I don’t know if he took any private lessons or practiced his shooting as an adult. So, it’s best the three of us stick together instead of splitting up. That way we can watch each others’ backs.
Dagen pulls a gun from his hip and holds it loosely in his hand. He glances at Ava. “Don’t do anything foolish,” he growls low and quiet. “We take it one step at a time.”
I’m the one who opens the door, throwing it wide so Dagen can aim his gun into the darkness, which is broken up only by the bits of sunshine that’s able to penetrate the dirty windows. Ava is behind us, protected. If someone shoots, they’ll have to hit us first. My weapon of choice is usually a computer, but for the first time, I wish I had a gun. Since I don’t have one handy on my hip like Dagen and Wylan seem to, I pick up a large axe from the fire box right inside the door. The little door is open, like someone had broken the lock, and the medical kit is gone. But the axe still stands shiny and red, even if it’s a little dirty. It’ll have to do.
“Stay close,” Dagen whispers as he leads the way, his eyes tracing through the darkness, searching for the threats.
We slip inside the office and head for the side door, our feet making far too much noise as they crunch across leaves, gravel, and garbage left behind from squatters and kids trying to have a fun time. There’s no noise from anywhere else, not from Wylan or anything. The warehouse is so quiet, I wonder briefly if we came to the wrong place.
Dagen nods toward another door that opens into the greater warehouse, and I grab the handle. Under my breath, I count to three before I throw the door open and Dagen steps through first, his gun aimed outward.
That’s when I realize our mistake.
We’d assumed Ric would be alone with Elsie, or that he at least lost most of his friends with the scandal. We expected him not to have any true help other than someone who helped him get out of the hotel. We were wrong. The moment Dagen steps through the door, something large smashes down over his head, disorienting him long enough for him to be tackled to the floor. The gun skitters away, too far for me to grab. I immediately push Ava back, urging her to run, but we turn right into more goons who’d somehow snuck in behind us. They’re wearing matching lewd grins as they grab Ava and hold tight. She screams in terror, my heart rate kicking into high gear at the thought of her hurt. I attack, the axe raised over my head as I shout and rush them, but I’m not a fighter. Compared to these muscled assholes, I might as well be a fucking fly. I’m wrapped in thick meaty arms before I can so much as swing the axe, and no matter how hard I kick, he doesn’t let me go.
“Let me go!” Ava shrieks, fighting the man holding her. “Dagen! Dagen!”
They carry us through the door like we’re children, waddling inside until we get a good look at the interior of the warehouse as the lights flicker on. One of the lights sparks with the sudden electricity after being dormant so long, sputters and goes out, leaving the room with dark shadows. Ava immediately loses her shit when we get a good look in the other room, and I don’t blame her.
In the center of the warehouse is a metal chair, little Elsie sitting on it in her purple frilly skirt and science t-shirt. Her Converse hang high above the ground, her legs too short to reach the concrete. She’s tied up, her hands behind her back, cloth around her mouth so she can’t talk. Tears streak down her cheeks, fear in her eyes that hurts my heart. She doesn’t deserve this. Neither of them fucking deserves this. The fear in her eyes makes me want to strangle Ricardo myself, makes me want to rip him limb from fucking limb.
Ricardo appears from the back of the warehouse, striding forward as he nonchalantly rolls up his sleeves to his forearms, slowly folding it over and over. The movement is meticulous, as if he wants to prolong this, as if he wants our anxiety higher. He looks at Ava, some sick twisted glee in his eyes that makes me sick. In his eyes, I see his desire to hurt Ava, to destroy her, and I’m reminded again of every injury she’s suffered over the years to protect her daughter and herself. She can’t be free until this man takes his last breath. We’re going to make sure he doesn’t leave this room despite the current situation. Dagen is held off to the side. Ava and I are brutally shoved to our knees before them. Elsie cries against the rag over her mouth. Despite that, I realize exactly the position we’re in.
I start to smile, small at first, but more noticeable the closer this asshole gets. Even as one of the muscleheads drags Ava toward Ricardo, my smile widens. He’s not alone. . . but neither are we. I don’t dare look up. I don’t dare give it away, but I know he’s there, watching, ready to act. Waiting for the perfect opportunity.
Ric grabs Ava roughly and she screams, kicking out at him, trying to hit him with her too small fists. The asshole shakes her violently and my smile turns into a snarl. Dagen is held the same as I am, but even I hear his inhalation of rage the moment Ricardo raises his hand.
The smack echoes in the warehouse.
Ava gasps as her face snaps to the side. Elsie cries through the gag in her mouth, screaming for her mother. Dagen spits his anger, fighting against his hold, desperately trying to get to Ava and Elsie.
But me? I just laugh and shake my head, amused at his idiocy.
Ricardo looks over at me with a snarl. “What?” he hisses. “You think this is funny?”
“You shouldn’t have done that,” I chuckle, my smile more of a savage baring of teeth now.
“And why is that?” Ric snarls, thinking he has the upper hand, too full of ego to understand that Ava and Elsie are no longer alone in this fight. They’ll never be alone again. We’re going to make sure of it.
“Because she doesn’t belong to you anymore,” I warn, straightening against my hold. My voice goes cold, and I fall into the alter ego I am online, the cold, crass hacker who brings down corporations, corrupt politicians, and criminals who prey on the innocent. Ricardo is just another job. Perhaps the most important one yet.
“And who do you think she belongs to?” Ricardo spits. “I have a piece of paper that says I own her.”
“You’re an idiot.” I tip my chin up with a husky laugh. “She doesn’t belong to you. She belongs to us.”
Above us, the phantom haunts the rafters.
Forty-Five
Wylan
I count twelve henchmen around the entire warehouse. They’re not very well organized, which tells me they aren’t the professionals I expected. Ole Ricky couldn’t even be bothered to pay for quality help, though I suppose he really didn’t have a choice now that we went after his money. Word on the street is that much of his net worth is now tied up by the FBI. Hard to just access that in a time of need. Otto had drained what accounts he could before we ever attended the gala. The rest have been frozen since then. He’s out of resources and though he’d had help leaving the hotel, it wasn’t enough to hire quality goons it seems.
The sound of flesh against flesh cracks through the warehouse and my head whips toward the sound. I get a good look at Ava’s turned face, her hand coming up to cradle her cheek where Ric just hit her. Felix laughs even as I move faster, my feet dancing along the old rafters like a choreographed bloody ballet.
